I had a great class last night, thanks for asking! Becoming a fitness instructor is something I’ve wanted to do since I was 24 and got heavily into taking aerobics from one peppy instructor at my tiny little gym in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Mary was a powerhouse: a petite girl with big(ish) hair, and huge muscles. She taught cardio classes and was a bodybuilder. Not a professional, but boy, was she “cut” (slang for “toned”: am I the only one that says that?)! What I loved was that in spite of her slightly intimidating presence, she had an absolutely adorable personality, and—off the microphone—she was very soft-spoken. She motivated me so,…
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Go Wednesday, Go!
I’ve been wanting to do this post for a long time, and I figure since it’s Wednesday and that day figures prominently in the story, why not today? Wednesday is my favorite day to exercise. A couple of years ago it was just “any old day” as far as my workout went, but then in 2006 I started teaching a group cycling class at 5:30 p.m. at a new (to me) healthclub. I wasn’t super-excited about the location of this place because it takes me about 25 minutes to get there with NO traffic, which is not usually the case. I was, however, excited about the Group Fitness Director, who…
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Daddies Say the Darndest Things
Here’s what was happening last night at Target, where Jim and I went on a post-dinner date shopping trip: As Jim was on his phone with the fifteen-year-old, trying to determine what the heck size workout shorts he needs now (that dang kid just keeps growing!), I was browsing across the aisle and I heard the screams of two children coming closer and closer. They were in one of those huge carts that are so great for taking kids shopping: the ones where the kids sit upright outside of and behind the actual cart. This cart was flying down the aisles, and the kids were shrieking, partially from fear and…
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No View From the Top
Yesterday, we continued a family tradition that started in June 2005. What is it, you ask? Taking our kids to a very special place for lunch to celebrate their 13th birthday: The Signature Room on the 95th Floor of the John Hancock Building, in downtown Chicago. Truth be told, we not only continued the tradition yesterday but also did it for the last time, since we only have two kids and will not give birth to any others, but let’s not get that technical! Eating at the Signature Room is a real fine dining experience. Also, as you can imagine, it’s very upscale (read: pricey). The service is fabulous; they…
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I Can Finally Justify Reading All the Celebrity Gossip…
I absolutely adore the people in my Wednesday evening group cycling class. I have been planning to do a post about them, but in the meantime, I wanted to share what my buddy Dave (one of my “founding four”: the four people who have come to 99% of the Wednesday classes since I started there in August 2006) brought back for me when he took a trip to Germany two weeks ago: Can you believe it? Can you feel my excitement at getting to read all of the same celebrity trash that we can get here, with the educational benefits of having to translate it? Yippee for me! This one…
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Just Look Who I “Ran Into”!
So, I was aimlessly driving around in the downtown area of my particular Chicago suburb last night with a trunkload of books, and I was shouting out the car window, “Books for sale! Books for sale!” And then suddenly, I heard some shrieking. I thought I heard my name being called but wasn’t too sure, because it sounded like “Melissa” with two s’s and not just one, but I listened closer… She called louder: “Hey! Melisa! With one s! I want a book!” Well, of course that got my attention and I turned toward the screaming and, after looking around and around I finally found the source, hanging out the…
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Hmm. I Was Hoping For Something More Exciting.
I just got back from a visit to Germany…err, I mean Kat’s blog, and took the donut quiz. I was expecting to be a Boston Creme, because Kat and I are evil twins. Our donut-ness must not be similar though, because I am apparently a glazed donut. I guess if you think about it, the glazed donut COULD be the evil twin of the Boston Creme, right? You Are a Glazed Donut Okay, you know that you’re plain – and you’re cool with that. You prefer not to let anything distract from your sweetness.Your appeal is understated yet universal. Everyone digs you.And in a pinch, you’ll probably get eaten. What…
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Keep An Eye on Your Young’uns!
So, I may have mentioned on this blog or the other one that, over the past couple of days, we’ve been watching old home movies of the boys when they were really little. In watching some footage yesterday, I made a funny discovery. Background information first: The fifteen-year-old has a REALLY annoying habit: if he has some food that he wants you to try and you don’t want to try it, he pushes and pushes and pushes until you (I mean, until Jim and I!) get sort of pissed off at his intensity. For example, here is a snippet of a conversation surrounding, oh, let’s say some kind of super-sour…
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I’ve Just Had the Giddiest of Conversations…
I just hung up the phone after speaking with…a foreigner! You remember that foreigners make me giddy, right? Check out my other blog to read all about it, here!
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Less Than Three Weeks Away…and We’re Still Okay!
*I did not take this photo in the future and bring it back on a time machine in order to post it; this was the photo session we had for the invitations! We’ve been quite busy lately: what else is new, right? But I’m not just talking about day-to-day life; in fact, we have a major event coming up on February 9 for which we have been working on several projects: The twelve-year-old’s Bar Mitzvah. (If you aren’t sure what a Bar Mitzvah is but never wanted to ask anyone, click here to learn more!) When the older boy became a Bar Mitzvah in July 2005, it was the culmination…